With JRE 1.4.x and 1.4.2_03, Microsoft JVM disabled or not installed, applets will show "smearing" or other repaint artifacts when the browser window is
resized. I've found that the applet demos on the Sun site can be used to
illustrate the problem. It appears that the repaint only occurs when the
browser window is resized horizontally.

Steps to reproduce:

1) Open IE (6.1)
2) Access:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/start/HelloSwingApplet.html
3) Resize the browser window by grabbing the right edge, moving it over
the applet, then back out

Note: It does not always happen. You may have to move in, release, move
out. You may have to resize fairly rapidly. It seems to happen with
horizonal resizing only, but I'm not certain of that. It could be that
with more complicated applets (such as ours) that the effect is
exacerbated.

This problem does not occur with JRE 1.3.1_03 (not tried later), nor
with the Microsoft JVM.

Attached is a bitmap showing the problem. The exact repainted image will
change, but parts are either left unpainted, or the previous background
"smears" without being erased.